Who could ever forget Dabney Coleman as the boss who gets paid back in spades by Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda in the 1980 movie 9 to 5. I’m sure those of you who can remember seeing the movie are probably humming the song in your head, so here goes:

“Tumble outta bed
And I stumble to the kitchen
Pour myself a cup of ambition
And yawn and stretch
And try to come to life
Jump in the shower
And the blood starts pumpin’
Out on the street
The traffic starts jumpin’
The folks like me on the job from 9 to 5…”

It’s 35 years later and 9 to 5 might have existed in that world, but let’s look at the important changes:

Before you even tumble out of bed, you pick your phone up to see what e-mails, text messages, and important Facebook notices have come in from 11 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.— and then you stumble into the kitchen.

Upon arriving in the kitchen, you think about one of the e-mails since it came from someone in the UK and realize you better respond to it so you get them potentially before their day ends and before yours starts. Or, you just want to show the world how you get an early start to the day (you rockstar), so you respond to a ton of e-mails just to have 5:59 a.m. show up in the header.

In the shower, you’ve got a small TV hooked up to the wall so you can catch the morning news or CNBC and get chock full of what’s happened since 3 a.m.

Once in the car and the traffic starts jumpin’, you plug in the headphones to start making those phone calls, check your messages, and feel like the to do list is shortened before you hit the office.

“Workin’ 9 to 5,
What a way to make a livin’
Barely gettin’ by
It’s all takin’ and no givin’
They just use your mind
And they never give you credit
It’s enough to drive you crazy
If you let it
9 to 5, for service and devotion
You would think that I
Would deserve a fat promotion
Want to move ahead
But the boss won’t seem to let me
I swear sometimes that man is out to get me…”

It’s 35 years later and 9 to 5 might have existed in that world, but let’s look at the important changes:

If you work just 9 to 5, you’ll officially be consider a ‘slacker’. Even at companies where you supposedly have to punch the clock, you’ll still be labeled someone who is just mailing it in at work. We should be watching results versus time, but it is human nature to see how ‘hard’ someone is working.

Companies are learning how to do more and more with less resources. I’m not just talking about automation, I’m talking about less human resources to manage more people and carry more tasks. By the sheer amount of work divided by the number of people, you’ll be working 40 plus per week.

Here’s the definition of a promotion today (I just saw this with a client). New title, larger scope and role, minimal pay change, BUT . . . . in three years there will be a larger more important role. LOL.

It’s not that people are out to get you, but technology is out to stay with you. Some people have the innate ability to turn it off when they leave work, but work will stay with you as long as you want it to every day. Take it from a self-proclaimed workaholic.

“They let you dream
Just to watch ’em shatter
You’re just a step
On the boss-man’s ladder
But you got dreams
He’ll never take away
You’re in the same boat
With a lotta your friends
Waitin’ for the day your ship’ll come in
‘N’ the tide’s gonna turn
And it’s all gonna roll your way
They got you where they want you
There’s a better life
And you think about it, don’t you
It’s a rich man’s game
No matter what they call it
And you spend your life
Puttin’ money in his wallet”

It’s 35 years later and 9 to 5 might have existed in that world, but let’s look at the important changes:

$100,000 isn’t what it used to be, but in some ways it is still part of the gold standard of success. However, it is near impossible in today’s day and age to get to $100,000 without those 50 to 60 hour work weeks.

Companies are even smarter today. They offer you perks like an on-site gym, on-site hair salon, and even on-site dry cleaning (or free food) in an effort to make your life better. Is it that your life is better or is it better for them that you stay at the work environment longer so you might come back to work.

With the internet, your store is open 24/7 all the time and that means you could be needed all the time. The sheer volume of e-mails you get daily now has added an extra hour to your work week (or more).

Bottom line on this is that technology has done a world of good, but it also has created the eternal window of accessibility. As long as we are accessible, we’ll work more.

My first boss said that working 9 to 5 was the just the ticket to admission and that everything you did before 9 and after 5 was an investment in yourself. Today, you shouldn’t have the expectation that your job is going to be 40 hours a week because no matter what they tell you it will be more. What a way to make a livin’, sometimes it will feel like all take and no givin’. Thanks #dollyparton for your song inspiring me to write this post.

My friends and family all think I’m a workaholic, but I say I’m just a guy that loves to help people do better in life.

My mother is still the only one that calls me by my real name Theodore Michael, my wife calls me Teddy, but for the rest of you it is just plain old Ted.

Ever since I was a little kid, I always loved money and being an entrepreneur. In fact, I still have cassette tapes of me talking to my grandmother at the age of five and my mother tells me all the time how much I played with money as a kid...

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